Thesis+Based+Research+Assignment

Tom Miller 10-9-09 Senior Seminar A block Mr. Martin Thesis Based Research

//Rationale for Research/Introduction//:

I chose this research path because golf is my favorite sport and hobby. I wanted to base my topic on something that would not bore me the whole semester, and I knew golf was the perfect topic. The driving question that guided my research was, how has the sport of golf evolved technologically from when it began hundreds of years ago and how has it had an effect on players. Specific questions that led me to answer my driving question included, what golf balls and golf clubs existed when the sport began? Who are the best players of all time? How has golf changed since the sport began?

//Research//:

A. Abrahams, Jonathan. "Golf." The New Book of Knowledge®. 2009. Grolier Online. 21 Sep. 2009 .
 * 1) A golf ball is designed to fly long distances. It is no less than 12/3 inches (4.27 centimeters) in diameter, and weighs no more than 1.6 ounces (45 grams). The ball is made up of a rubber core surrounded by a high-impact plastic cover. Hundreds of small dimples in the cover enhance the ball's aerodynamic qualities. A golf ball can travel more than 300 yards (274 meters) in the air when struck by the strongest players. For maximum visibility, most golf balls are white.
 * 2) A set of clubs has four categories: woods, irons, wedges, and a putter. Each category is different, but the basic construction is the same: Each club has a rubber grip for the hands; a shaft, which is usually made of steel or graphite; and a clubhead, usually made of steel, which makes contact with the ball.
 * 3) Irons were once made of iron, giving them their name, but for years they have been made of steel. They are shorter than woods and are used for shorter shots from the fairway and rough that are intended to reach the green. Irons have their own subcategories: long irons (1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-irons), mid-irons (5-, 6-, and 7-irons), and short irons (8- and 9-irons). Most sets come with irons 3 through 9. The 1- and 2-irons are optional.
 * 4) Wedges, which look like irons, are the most lofted clubs in the set and are useful around the green.

B. Golf." Encarta. Ed. George F Pepper. N.p., 2009. Web. 19 Sept. 2009. .
 * 1) It has been fairly well established, however, that the game that is known today was actually devised by the Scots in the 14th or 15th century.
 * 2) In the 18th century the first golf associations were established.
 * 3) In the United States alone, more than 16,000 golf courses serve more than 26 million people who play golf at least once a year.
 * 4) Governing bodies are the USGA, PGA, and LPGA.

C. "Golf Ball and Golf History." The Design Shop. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2009. .
 * 1) Golf, as we know it, was first played with a leather-covered ball stuffed with goose or chicken feathers. This was called the feathery cube.
 * 2) The first "Gutta" ball is believed to have been made in 1848 by the Rev. Dr. Robert Adams Paterson from gutta-percha packing material.
 * 3) The gutta-percha ball enormously enhanced the game of golf, however it was soon discovered by golfers who failed to smooth their balls by boiling and rolling them on a "smoothing board" after play, that a many "nicked" ball had truer flight than the smooth gutta.
 * 4) Thus the hand hammered gutta was created by hammering the softened ball with a sharp edged hammer ... giving the ball an even pattern that greatly improved its play.
 * 5) Surface textures and patterns impressed into the gutta-percha balls evolved from early imitations of feathery ball stitching to the highly detailed and symmetrical that greatly improved the balls flight. Hand marked bramble pattern soon became most common. Called the Bramble.
 * 6) Rubber ball invented in 1898 by a Cleveland, Ohio, golfer, Coburn Haskell, in association with Bertram Work of the B. F. Goodrich Company.
 * 7) Soon the superior dimple pattern took hold.
 * 8) On January 1, 1932, standardization of golf ball weight and size was established by the United States Golf Assn. following 1930 standards set by the British Golf Assn. for a slightly smaller ball.
 * 9) The weight was set at a maximum of 1.620 oz., and diameter not to be less than 1.680 in. Later after testing apparatus was developed to measure velocity, a maximum velocity of 250 feet per second was added by the USGA.
 * 10) Plastics, silicone, and improved rubber create what is known as the modern ball. Shows the technological development and development of the space age.

D. Thomas, Lauren. "Advances in Sports Technology: Over the Line or Fair Game?." Issues: Understanding Controversy and Society. ABC-CLIO, 2009. Web. 5 Oct. 2009. .
 * 1) In golf, for example, the average driving distance (generally, the length of the first shot on a hole hit from a tee) among players on the PGA Tour was about 288 yards in 2008, compared to approximately 271 yards a decade earlier.
 * 2) This increase has been primarily credited to the continuing development of lighter golf clubs with larger heads and longer shafts, which make it easier for players to drive balls a longer distance.
 * 3) Oldest clubs consisted of a wood shaft and a club face with no cuts, dimples, or concave to it.
 * 4) On the other hand overblown drivers make the game more exiting and the sport has become more popular.

E. Weathers, Ed. "Evolution of a Clubhead." Golf Digest 46: n. pag. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 7 Oct. 2009. .
 * 1) When feathery ball was replaced by gutta, new club technology was used. The old woods had concave faces; the new woods had revolutionary convex faces--what we now call "face bulge.
 * 2) The face bulge, accounted for something called the "gear effect," helped the hook of toe hits and the slice of heel hits to land more often on the short grass.
 * 3) In the 1890s Until the late 1800s, irons were handmade by blacksmiths, who hammered them out in their forges. While many smiths were true artisans, the result was inconsistent club head shapes with unpredictable lofts and lies. By the end of the 19th century, though, these blacksmiths were replaced by "cleek-makers" (named after an early iron club), who came to use giant steam-powered machines with pre-shaped dies to pound out clubheads. Around this time, steel also replaced iron as the metal of choice, partly because it could be worked better by the machines.
 * 4) For centuries, wood club heads were attached to their shafts by "spliced" joints, has a branch is grafted to a tree. The connection was cemented with glue and whipping (wrappings of thread or string). But the new bulger woods, which emerged in the 1880s, were solid enough to allow a hole to be drilled in them; the shaft was then anchored in the hole. Some club makers of the time actually drilled holes all the way through the head to the sole--the original bore-through design. Many players, like Bobby Jones, were slow to adopt the socket-head dubs Today, of course, the socket-head design, with its many variations, is standard.
 * 5) In 1890s Nearly all early clubs were smooth faced. Not until the end of the 19th century did clubs with dimples or lines etched in the face become commonplace. By World War I, there were clubfaces with dimple-like indentations, cross-hatching, vertical lines and extra-deep grooves. Some clubs even had holes dear through the face. In theory such markings offered greater backspin and ball control.

F. Cyber Golf. N.p., 2008. Web. 7 Oct. 2009. .
 * 1) Golf course architects believe there should be “a line drawn in the sand soon” – at least for tournament golf – or technology could render some courses obsolete.
 * 2) “It is not just an issue for new courses, but for every club that finds its best golf holes rendered defenseless by technology.”
 * 3) In the recent U.S. Open, for instance, players were hitting with two irons on a 490-yard hole – not the driver and long iron intended.
 * 4) As drives get longer, courses are going to need to get longer and restrictions need to be pulled.

G. “Golf Club History.” Golf Club Review. N.P., 2009. Web. 8 Oct. 2009. http://www.golf-club-review.com/golf-club-history.html.
 * 1) New graphite shafts have greatly contributed to swing speed and ball flight.
 * 2) Putting technology uses new mallet designs that make more use of MOI, or moment of inertia, which reduces twisting off center of golf club.
 * 3) Hybrid clubs are brand new invention which increase distance greatly with a wood feel, but with the control of an iron. Overall shots are less difficult now.
 * 4) New alloys used on many clubs creating incredible ease and distance, much better than old wooden clubs.

H. “King Viola.” “Evolution of Golf Equipment.” Associated Content. N.P., 2008. Web. 8 Oct. 2009. http://www.associatedcontent.com.
 * 1) First man made golf ball was a leather bag stuffed with feathers, 1898 marked first rubber bore golf ball.
 * 2) New age dimpled golf balls can fly hundreds of yards truer than when the sport began thanks to aerodynamics.
 * 3) 200 to 400 dimples per ball.
 * 4) Originally people hit off a mound of dirt in their opening shot. Now tees are used and give you a much better lie.
 * 5) "In the early 1970s, golf clubs with shafts of fibre-reinforced composite materials were developed, but these shafts were expensive and too flexible. After a few years, stronger fibre replaced the originals, increasing the popularity of these kinds of clubs."

//Thesis//:

Based on my research, my stance on technology in golf is that golfers from different times are incomparable due to the technology available to them.

My initial thesis is, technology has evolved in the sport of golf since it began and has made the sport much easier, because it has completely changed the skill level in golfers and what they are capable of, making many golfers incomparable.

Golf balls have radically changed over the years affecting ball flight and distance. a. Support: C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, C7, C8, C9, C10, H2

Recent golf clubs are capable of longer distance and more accuracy than older versions. a. D2, D3, E2, E3, E4, G1, G2, G3, G4

Golf Courses are not as challenging with new golf technology. a. D1, D2, F1, F2, F3, F4

Restrictions on technology are not being made due to increased popularity and enjoyment. a. D2, D4, F3, F4, H5

Old golf technology was totally basic and unimpressive. . a. C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, D3, E1, E2, E3, E4

//Process Reflection://

From my research I have learned a good deal of things. I have learned many different ways my thesis can branch off into different subtopics. I have many specific statistical facts now to back up my thesis. Lastly I learned that using the same type of sources won't give you valuable research. Thinking skills I employed were taking apart words to understand them. In my research I found scientific information that was hard to understand and by just looking at the word and using context clues I could figure out what they meant. I need to improve on my research abilities as well. Mostly I'd say I need to get better at what I search on different web sites. Keywords and subtopics can sometimes give you much better information than just simply searching your broad topic on a search engine. Also I need to better understand what each database on our library research page is good for, so in the future I know which ones will be more likely to help my topic. Information I did not know before on my topic would be that golf courses have been seriously affected by golf technology. I never thought about how courses that were originally designed fifty or more years ago, when people could not hit and maneuver the ball with as much ease as today, are being rendered obsolete.

//Connections to the Overall Project://

My findings fit back into the big picture of my project because now I have specific examples of what particular technologies have changed, including balls, tees, clubs, and golf courses. I also have specific statistics that can help people better understand how old golf is and how much it has changed because of technology. Now with my research I can move forward because I have found specific subtopics I can break into, giving a more in depth look at how technology has enhanced the game of golf. Also I think I have a better Idea of ways that I can present my project to the class, making it visual and interesting.